Over 40,000 jobs vacant in Alberta in Q4:report

Even though jobs are hard to come by in Alberta in this tough economy you might be surprised to learn how many positions sit vacant.

The latest help wanted report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shows more than 40,000 jobs were unfilled in Alberta in the fourth quarter…most of them in small to medium sized businesses.

Generally vacancies are up in the service sector, and down among goods producers and many of them are in small communities in the province. The report backs up what places like Banff have been reporting-a shortage of hospitality and retail workers.

But Amber Ruddy, Alberta Director of the CFIB acknowledges the service and hospitality jobs that are so plentiful are not a good fit for a laid off oil executive with a family to support.

“That does speak to the mismatch. Not everybody laid off in one sector is necessarily going to be willing and able to pick up and move to other sectors. But then we have to think about, how are we going to fill that need. We have to look at fixes to the permanent immigration system so that people that are willing to work those jobs can come and allow these businesses to thrive.”

Nationally the private sector job vacancy rate fell to 2.5 per cent in the last three months of the year. Alberta’s sat at 2.4 per cent.